Jail sentence for former Railway Board Member, 4 others

Chennai: The Special Judge for CBI Cases, Chennai has convicted V.K.Agnihotri, a former Member Engineering, Railway Board; N.Kirthivasan, ex-General Manager; P.Rajamoni, ex-Chief Track Engineer; S.Sethuraman, the then Additional General Manager and S.Ramasubramanian, then Chief Signals & Telecommunication Engineer, all working in Southern Railway and sentenced them to undergo two years Rigorous Imprisonment with total fine of Rs.Two lakh.

CBI had registered a case against V.K.Agnihotri, N.Kirthivasan, P.Rajamoni, R.S.Narayanan, FA & CAO; S.Sethuraman, Addl.GM; S.Ramasubramanian CSTE, all working in Southern Railway and S.Palani, a Civil Engineering Contractor. It was alleged that in 1995, the accused Railway officials recommended and sanctioned machinery advance of Rs.26,64,450 to S. Palani, the Contractor for supply of hand broken ballast in violation of tender conditions. The accused also recommended & sanctioned machinery advances of Rs.10,57,218, Rs.9,16,938 and Rs.12,28,480 for three other contracts to Palani and placed orders for supply of ballast in 11 reaches requiring very huge quantities. The machinery was not purchased by Palani. Hence, all the contracts were terminated due to the poor performance and the terminated contracts were awarded to other contractors. An alleged loss of Rs, 2,29,84,432 being additional expenditure incurred towards execution of terminated contracts, apart from the advances made to Palani, was caused to Railways

During trial, Narayanan and Palani expired and charges against them were abated. The Trial Court found the accused persons guilty and convicted them.

3-year Rigorous imprisonment for former HAL officials, others

In another case, the Special Judge for CBI cases, Bangalore has convicted M.S. Sanjay, a former Deputy Manager (Methods), H.M. Ramesh, then Assistant Engineer (QC), both working in Helicopter Divison of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore, K.V. Hemanth, then Consultant Dynatech Tools & Devices and B. Damodar, then Managing Partner of Dynatech Tools & Devices and sentenced them to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment with total fine of Rs. 3.5 lakh.

CBI had registered a case against the accused persons alleging that M.S. Sanjay and H.M. Ramesh had abused their official position and shown undue favour to Dynatech Tools & Devices represented by K.V. Hemanth and B. Damodar. The accused falsely certified the receipt of parts and brackets and their inspection. Based on the reports, the Finance Department of HAL-HD made the payment of invoices raised by Damodar. Consequently a loss of Rs. 22,67,189 was caused to HAL.

After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against the accused in the Designated Court on 29 May 2014.